OLEAN — To celebrate Music in Our Schools Month, Olean City School District students will perform in two upcoming concerts.

The first, the aptly titled Music in Our Schools Month Concert, will be at 7 p.m. March 19 at the Olean High School auditorium. Then, the Olean Intermediate Middle School Showcase Concert will be at 7 p.m. March 24, also at the Olean High auditorium.

“It’s the first time that we’ve ever had that concert at the high school,” Jan Rhody, OCSD music department co-chairperson, said of the first show. “It’s actually going to be replacing several other concerts. We’ve decided to kind of combine concerts to honor the time of year.”

The event will feature the Olean High orchestra, jazz band, select choir and Bel Canto singing group. Middle school music instructor Jackie Eustis and one of her students will accompany a small vocal feature on guitar, Rhody noted.

“She has a small group coming up from the middle school,” she added.

The tone of the Music in Our Schools Month Concert will be lighter pieces. The songs performed by the Olean High select choir will also be its focus at the annual New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA) Major Organization Adjudication Festival on April 30 in Williamsville, Rhody said.

Last year, Olean High performers left the festival that day and went on to perform at Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

THE OIMS SHOWCASE concert is slated to feature each of the district’s fourth- and fifth-graders — about 320 of them — in a wide variety of music, Rhody said.

The fifth-grade elementary band will take the stage, along with the fourth- and fifth-grade orchestra and the fourth- and fifth-grade chorus.

“These musicians have worked very hard and are very anxious to perform and show their talents,” said Kathy Eggert, fourth- and fifth-grade general music instructor and fellow OCSD music department co-chair.

The second show’s grand finale will highlight all of that night’s entertainers in a rendition of “God Bless America.”

AGAIN THIS YEAR, Music in Our Schools Month has included musical performances — called “Harmony in the Morning” — to start each school day in the Olean High front lobby.

It has, and will continue, to showcase smaller ensembles of the district’s orchestras, bands and choirs throughout March.

(Contact reporter Kelsey M. Boudin at kboudin@oleantimesherald.com. Follow him on Twitter, @KelseyMBoudin)